Advances in Projective Drawing Interpretation

Book excerpt: Forty years after Emanuel Hammer's classic book, The Clinical Application of Projective Drawings, was published, he is now presenting this exciting new book on Advances in Projective Drawing Interpretation, which richly shares his further research investigations and growth in experience, in scope, and in writing quality. The aim of the book is to take the reader to the outer edge of the technique's acquired virtuosity, versatility, and usefulness. Exceptional contributors were chosen for their pertinence and their range and inventiveness. Signature topics include: (1) the differentiation from each other in the drawings of two diagnostic challenges -- schizophrenia and organic brain damage from neurotic conditions; (2) the prediction of imminent acting-out states of life and death issues, of dangerousness to others or to self, of homicide, suicide, rape, sexual abuse, assault, violence, and exhibition- ism; (3) the use of chromatic drawings to descend deeper into the projective technique process to elicit a more hierarchical personality portrait; and (4) the investigation of the personality dimensions that differentiate those interpreters who possess the talent to effectively practice the art of drawing interpretation from those who do not. All chapters mix the best and most heuristic of the work in the field to produce a text that is a monument to authenticity and utter clarity. This outstanding book assembles the progress in the science and in the clinical art of projective drawings as we enter the twenty-first century.